Natural Gas Europe was invited on Wednesday 24th April to the Parliament of Lebanon where Congressman Mohammad Kabbani, chairman of the parliamentary committee on energy, gave a press statement.
Congressman Kabbani expressed his satisfaction with the enthusiasm that international companies have shown via their application to the pre-qualification round: 52 companies, from 25 countries, sent their applications, from which 46 have qualified. From 16 companies which applied for right-holder operator status, 12 have qualified: Exxon Mobil, Shell, Petrobras,Chevron, Statoil, Inpex, Eni, Maersk, Anadarko, Repsol, Petronas and Total. In addition, 34 out of 36 international companies won the pre-qualification as right-holder non-operators. Congressman Kabbani added that the Lebanese offshore area covers a total of 22,730km2 in the Eastern Mediterranean and has never been previously licensed for hydrocarbon exploration.